Slavery In Indian Country: The Changing Face Of Captivity In Early America By Christina Snyder

Slavery in Indian Country: The Changing Face of Captivity in Early America by Christina Snyder emphasizes on the importance of the of the pre-existing system and the evolution on the Native American social structure in how race was understood among the Native Americans. The book addresses that before the mid-eighteen hundred, the south was a different place where hundreds of Natives groups controlled the Native ground. Snyder’s thesis is identified in her introduction; she supports the idea of Indian slavery in the colonial world and how the indigenous societies were embedded with the idea of race. Captives were a way in which indigenous practice slavery; they saw the captives as a lesser person in the Indian societies.“ Captives was not a static institution for Indians, but rather a practice that they adopted over time to meet changing needs and circumstances.” Snyder’s book helps the reader understand that captivity was more than marginalizing the captive or dehumanizing him or her, but it was a fundamental component of identity in the Native

Each chapter presents topics that tie together to the idea of Indian slavery and the forms of captivities. Snyder’s argues that the captives were more than “marginal, and they are, in some sense property” that was more of a European perspective. For example on chapter 1, Inequality, War and Captivity become a way that Snyder illustrates the fundamental clan system of the Indians in economic, political, social and spiritual lives in the Mississippian era. During time of warfare captives were taken to demonstrate their dominion over the defeating tribe that in many cases the captives were used for killing rituals or were retained as personal servants and laborers. However, the concept of Indian Slavery was modified overtime the practice of the captive was rationalized by commitment to kinship to the Indian community. Snyder stresses the